CCJames Photography » the blog

Well, summer is here!  We started early, but it was still HOT!  Mom, Dad and Mr. J did great and we all pretended like it didn’t bother us at all… 

Mr. J is another First Year Graduate.  I can’t believe all my babies are “graduating”!!!  Why does the time seem to go by sooooo fast as you get older?  I remember when I was a kid (YES, I can remember that far back) and I used to WISH for the time to go faster so I could do the next big thing (drive, get a job, go to college, etc, etc.).  Oh how I wish I could have some of that “free” time back!  :)

Anyway – back to the pictures.  Mr J is just as sweet as pie – even if Mom and Dad are some of my fiercest poker competitors (hee-hee!).  Happy (belated) Birthday!  

I’ve said it before and I will say it again – our neighborhood is singlehandedly repopulating the earth!  I think the last RSVP for the neighborhood BBQ was forty-something adults and thirty-something kids!  When we moved into our house in 2004, we all enjoyed kid-free happy hours and adult dinner nights.  Now, it’s a kid frenzy at every event – and it’s so much fun.  

Steph was one of my first maternity & newborn clients – so I can’t believe I’m already photographing her TWIN GIRLS while miss Caden is 2+ years old!  Lucky me, beautiful subjects all around!

See what I mean???  Just gorgeous!  Not to mention that Mom is just recovering from a C-section and she’s out and about like Superwoman!

As most people know, it’s very difficult to get a good sibling picture with a baby – let alone TWO babies – but Caden was a great little model and she adores her sisters.

A cute little smile from miss Callie

A snuggle from Mom and a sweet smile from Kensley

Sometimes I forget that I live in the South (being from California) until a client whips out something like THIS!  Just look at these little hats!  Steph said, and I quote, “Don’t be surprised if we pick one of these pictures for the announcements!”  I contemplated not showing them to her and saying that my camera broke or something – but they are kind of cute!  :)

I really can’t believe that Mr. C and Mr. J are ALREADY one year old!!  It feels like yesterday when I did their NEWBORN session!  We had so much fun in the park – and they were great subjects.  It was HOT, but we made it through – with great images to boot!

Mom was telling me about how they amuse each other in the car.  They are going to be so fun growing up!

Just look at the beautiful eyes on these two!

A fun birthday picture.  I had my friend make me a couple “boy” birthday hats…… aren’t they cute???  :)

I’m so glad I got to document their first year.  Such a precious time for mom & dad – it passes so quickly.

Now, I don’t make any claims to be a “product” photographer – but I just wanted to share some canvas prints that I have done.  They really do make a true work of art for your home.  I have several hanging at the Shoppe of Vinings in case you want to see some samples in person (or if you just want to do some shopping!)

A detail of the image printed on the beautiful canvas fabric.

The following two are both 30×40 size portraits.

I had a fun morning in the park with mom and miss “E”.  It’s such a sweet age – when they are just learning to talk and they REALLY want to explore the world.  But, at the same time, they can be shy and cautious – and just want to stay with mommy.  You’ll see by the pictures, we got the best smiles when miss “E” was with her mommy.  

This was sooooo funny – we gave her the little lollipop so she would let us put the tu-tu on.  But she really wanted the “candy” off the stick.  She wasn’t quite sure what to do with it.  Once she figured it out, she didn’t know to close her mouth around the lollipop – so the result – droooooool city baby!  Mom and I had a good laugh.  :)

This was our second session and we had such a great time.  Mr. “G’s” parents are wonderful to work with – it’s like we’ve been friends forever.  They are always up for anything and (as you will see) Mr. G is such a good sport – and cute as pie!  I love before/after pictures so I had to put a couple in the blog.  Both of these REALLY show how much baby G has grown in the first 7 months.  Amazing!

We tried to “curl” him up like the newborn picture – he was fighting tooth and nail – arching his back and kicking!

BEFORE………

AFTER………

I think mom was convinced when she left that Mr. G didn’t smile at all during our session.  But, he did.  Just look at that grin!

I had to share this picture because I LOVE the matching swirly hair – like father like son!  :)

As I go through the images from a session, I re-live all of the silly stuff that happened.  The images from this session tell a vivid story of three siblings who love life and love each other.  I don’t know how I will ever narrow down the number of images for mom.  That is the HARDEST part of my job!  

Mom wanted lots of candid, fun shots – to really capture the stage of life each child is in right now.  We definitely did that!  

Enjoy the sneak peak!

Had to include this one – it just makes me smile.  Ahhh, the middle child, so full of zest for life.  The swing was going a million miles an hour – but I still captured this image.  There were many times during our session when miss “O” was saying “Miss Crystal take my picture!”  Gotta love a willing subject!

Now that we have a son I’m sure I will learn more about relating to boys – although with these two I didn’t have any trouble at all.  My husband said the hardest thing for him to wrap his head around right now is that Jake (our son) won’t have a brother.  Jeff is very close in age (13 months) to his own brother and I don’t have any siblings at all – so we will both be learning something new.  

We had so much fun at our session and these two boys were perfect angels!  The youngest, Mr. J, was in Kylie’s class at school.  His mom and I discovered that they had a “liking” for each other when we went on our pumpkin patch field trip. The oldest, Mr. D, is very into baseball and he can tell you stats, names and all kinds of other stuff – soooo cute!  Mom said she really wanted pictures of the kids just being themselves (LOVE THAT).  You can see from these images that they have a special relationship and that Mr. J ADORES his big brother.

I managed to distract them before the splashing became a total disaster!  :)  Just look at that grin!

Okay – I couldn’t decide which one of these two pictures to post.  The eyes on these two – soooo gorgeous!  Oh, and by the way – didn’t mom do a great job with the outfits?? Love the colors!

I would say that most of what I do is childhood portraiture.  That is why it’s so refreshing for me to do “something different” once in a while.   This lovely woman contacted me to do some portraits of her for family and for a journey that she is about to embark on.  It was a beautiful morning and we had a nice, relaxing time.  I hope she had as much fun as I did! 

Good luck with everything Miss M.  :)

Next up – an ADORABLE pair of boys!

As most of you know (and any photographer will tell you) – it’s almost impossible to take pictures of your own kids.  BUT, today I had both kids all day (and it was a loooooooooong day) and my Kylie Bear let me dress her up in a beautiful tu-tu skirt and some cowboy boots while Jake was sleeping.  AND, she let me take a few pictures.  Yes, I bribed her with a popsicle.  What else can I do?

Here’s my sweetheart.  

A note about the picture above.  Kylie has started biting her nails REALLY BAD (any advice here is welcome).  I often tell my clients that you want to remember your children “as they are” rather than the perfect posed shots.  This picture just speaks to me because it portrays the girl she is right now, for this moment — and we know how short these moments can be.